Today's Wall Street Journal article H-P Plans to Buy Voodoo, Start Push Into Gaming (subscription required) is interesting because Dell recently purchased Alienware, a maker of high performance computers.
Hewlett-Packard Co. said it will buy Canadian personal-computer maker Voodoo Computers Inc. and start a gaming division, its first major push into the small but profitable PC-gaming market.
Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Closely held Voodoo Computers, Calgary, Alberta, makes high-end PCs that are popular with gamers who are willing to pay high prices for PCs with the latest processors and graphics cards. The acquisition follows a similar purchase by H-P rival Dell Inc., which in March bought Alienware Corp., a PC company also popular with gamers.
Voodoo computers sell for an average $5,000, compared with about $800 for the average consumer PC purchased at retail, analysts say. Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates Inc., estimates Voodoo will have more than $115 million in revenue this year.
Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ) is taking direct aim at another part of Dell's strategy. Recently I wrote two recent articles concerning Dell: Has Dell Lost Its Way? and Michael Dell Reinforces Support For Kevin Rollins. I urge you to read both articles, starting with the first. In the first article, I reference Rahul Sood's excellent blog post, which I strongly urge you to read as well. Rahul is president of and chief technology officer of Voodoo.
Given Dell's recent missteps and H-P's recent successes against Dell, this should be another challenging development for Dell.
Update
You should also read Rahul Sood's blog post Project Vampire is about to Fly....
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